Hi
My 1992 Renault Clio 16v has developed around the wheel arches on both rear wings a patch of rust which seems to be coming through from inside the body work. I have noticed the same problem on similar aged two doored Clio's. Can anyone out there confirm this on their two doored Clio (Any version)? This seems to be a design fault on the two door models, possibly allowing rain to collect at this point. There are no significant area's of rust any where else on the car. I have had the car from new and it has a full Renault service history. I have been told by an independant car body shop that this is not an easy repair and the cheapest fix will probably cost around £500 and to replace both rear wings will be at least four times this figure. I know the car is over ten years old this year but as it has a FRSH can I expect a sympathetic response from Renault themselves about making good this problem? Any opinions, advice, suggestions, gratefully received.
Thank you
Johno
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Strangely enough I recently spent a weekend trying to cure the same problem on my son's 4-door K reg Clio 1.4 RN. The rust there also seemed to be coming from inside the wheel arch and affected the area on the forward edge - the narrow area between wheel arch and rear door. I suspect that my repairs might last a short while but that by the end of winter it will need doing again. Although there are no other obvious areas where there is rust, I just put it down to the age of the car. My daughter has an Lreg 2-door and there are no signs of rust on hers!
PhilW
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This can happen to pretty much any car with a non-galvanised body, where owners don't clean out the mud that builds up around the back of the wheelarch lip. This is one of my pet hates - easy to prevent, and astonishingly difficult and expensive to repair if you let it take hold.
Some cars seem more vulnerable than others - I suspect a combination of poor design and shoddy paint/sealant applications in the case of Clios and Fiestas. The wheelarches on my 20 year old Polo were caked with mud when I got it, but the bodywork underneath has survived well.
Moral: if you don't want to spend your weekends messing about with body filler, glassfibre paste and aerosols, buy a German car.
Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com
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Or a citroen. There's a lot of old AXs out there that are still looking good.
The only sign of rust on my 96 Xantia is where it's been damaged.
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I second that. My 1990 BX is pretty much rust free, except where it has a minor dent.
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All right then. Buy a German car - or a Citroen. I owned two AXs and bought a couple more on behalf of friends, and I was impressed by how rust-free even older examples were, despite being made from steel so thin you can almost see through it. I think they only have single-skinned rear wheelarches where most cars are double-skinned and more prone to rot. Also a nice clean design underneath with very few mud traps anywhere. I've seen a couple with rust starting to bubble around the fuel filler cap (there's a mud trap around the neck of the fuel filler under the rear wing), but nothing worse than that.
Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com
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That's a fair point about the Citroens. The early ZX and Xantia's I look after are as rust free as any 1992/3 cars on the road. By that I mean no rust at all, not a little bit of "stone chipping", not a tiny bit over the wheelarches, not early signs of seam rust underneath....just none at all anywhere.
In comparison a 1992 Renault 19 I look after is breaking out everywhere, as are some other makes.
David W
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Or a Volvo !
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Doubt you can get any luck with Renault, you'd be better off trying a different body shop, I was quoted £100 to fix the wheel arches on my Fiesta, never bothered though 'cos the car got broken into and I sold it a few weeks later...
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It seems to affect a lot of the early ones (1991/92 - H/J reg) round my (old) way (Reading), regardless of 3 or 5 door. A friend who recently p/ex'd his 91H 1.4RT 5-door with 110k miles had rust all over the bottom of the rear wings, just above the wheelarches.
Must be a design fault - and I agree it's unusual for a modern French design. Most 80s and newer French tackle doesn't seem to rust, bodywork-wise. Particularly impressive are the Peugeots (205, 309 and 405) - must be thoughtful design, or good steel/rustproofing perhaps? Never owned a French car (yet!) so can't comment from first-hand experience!
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